Step 1: Read directions. Step 2: Follow directions.

OK, this is a just a quick post to remind everybody of the golden rule of building a Van’s aircraft:  If something doesn’t work, then double check everything in the instructions because you’re doing something wrong.

In this case, I assumed since this was  physical drop-in-replacement that all I had to do was drop it in.  Instruction #8, in turn, refers to the elaborate (and I must admit, not the most well written document) which says to load the appropriate configuration file, 12-GPS-2020-PRE-SETS_01-14-16.dfg.  Note that this is not the same as the 12-GPS-250-PRE-SETS_01-14-16.dfg which I have had loaded since last year.  

How did I realize this?  Well, recall that I had determined that the 2020 "wasn’t working", so I took off the canopy and the avionics bay.  I figured out that the old 250 still worked by soldering pins on the cut-off wires and individually putting them in the socket of the Control Module, and it worked perfectly.  I concluded that I had received  a bad 2020.  I ordered a replacement and finally got to the airport.  This time I was smart enough to not undo anything before I had to.  I inserted the plug from the 2nd 2020 and—lo & behold—it didn’t work either. That’s when the light bulb illuminated that I had failed to follow Rule #1 and Rule #2.

Sigh.  Now all I have to do is put the avionics bay cover on and reattach the canopy.

 

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8/31/16:  Removed SV-GPS-250, replaced with SV-GPS-2020 IAW Van’s Notification 16-01-16.
(s) DBHill 3132802 RLSA-I.

dead SV-GPS-2020

I got a chance to go flying the other night.  Technically, the excuse was that I haven’t been night-current for a long time, but you & I know that it’s just because it’s fun to fly.  I had had a fairly stressful set of days at work, and I just needed the stress relief.

The flight was effortless and smooth, taking off about dusk.  I did accomplish 5 night landings. 

and Alas, not everything was roses.  The left strobe refused to light up.  I think I may have done some damage to the electrical connector when I first attempted to replace the wing after installing the AoA hardware.  I recall the AoA connector being wedged between the electrical connector.  That will be where I start debugging, anyway.

When I had installed the new SV-GPS-2020, I received an error message which I mistakenly attributed to no GPS signal inside the hanger.  Nope.  It was the SkyView trying to tell me that there was no GPS receiver.  In other words, the new one wasn’t working.  Yesterday, I was able to have a friend help me get the canopy off and I opened up the avionics bay.  Unfortunately, the new one is wired correctly.  I got my old one and soldered on new pins (I had cut off the old connector as I don’t have an insertion/extraction tool).  Plugging it into the system resulted in a “no position” error for about 3 minutes, then everything worked fine.

I ordered a replacement today from Van’s, along with the extraction tool.  They will give me a credit when I return the defective new unit.  BTW, I’ll do a temporary test installation of the new unit before I run its cables and install it.

Punch List

There’s a term that I’ve heard recently that refers to a list of minor items found on an inspection—punch list.  This posting addresses my punch list from phase 1 testing.   As you may recall, the airport was closed for nearly a month.  I wasn’t able to get out there very often, but took advantage of as much time as I could to address the items I found.  See below for the log entry of tasks that were actually completed. 

I had misdrilled holes in the main wheel fairings.  After a quick consultation on VAF, I filled the holes with floxed epoxy and then put 2 layers of glass inside the fairing.  I’ll get back to them, eventually.

The painters out in Cadiz OH haven’t contacted me yet, but I’m no longer convinced that it’s worth $13K to paint the plane.  I contacted a local painter who has done several RVs on the field and I (and others) like his work.  He only does 2 planes per year, so I’m waiting for next spring.  He’s saying $6-7K, so I think that’s worth while.  I’m using the $6K ‘saved’ to purchase a new avionics box for the Cardinal.

The fuel tank measurement clearly had an electrical problem.  VAF wisdom suggested that it was a faulty ground.  I happened to be lucky enough to have the gremlin poke its head up while I was working on the autopilot (e.g., I noticed the fuel level suddenly at 1 gal.)  I grabbed a test lead and was able to make the level normalize with grounding and could reproduce the up/down swing by removing/replacing the makeshift ground strap.  I will research the best way to attache a more permanent ground screw into a tank full of gasoline (vapor.)

 

Logbook entry:

Installed angle-of-attack line using 25’ of nylon tubing, McMaster-Carr Quick-Disconnect Tube Coupling 5012K114, Van’s Static Kit.   Removed SV-1000T per factory recommendations. Unit returned to factory for warranty repair.  Reinstalled in aircraft.  Power up test good.   Removed SV-GPS-200, replaced with rule compliant SV-GPS-2020.  Power up check good.  Flight test pending.   Rewired pitch servo and roll servo.  Power up check detects both servos & auto-updates them to current firmware revision.

roll servo repaired?

As mentioned before, neither of the autopilot servos were visible to the Dynon system.  I had already discovered a completely incorrect wiring of the pitch servo (under the seat) and was successful at re-wiring it a few weeks ago.  With DLZ closed for July, I started working on minor issues that needed attention, such as the roll servo behind the main bulkhead.  

I discovered at least one wire had pulled out its socket on inspection.  Upon removing the servo itself, another 2 wires were found or were pulled loose as well.  I identified them as being the data channels, so that’s a logical reason for the servo to remain invisible on the networks.  New sockets were applied and the servo was re-installed.  Since the main computer is back at Dynon for repairs, power up testing will have to wait.

 

 

This is just a diagnostic photo of the plane’s side of the wiring harness.  Rather than trying to fit The Book into the back or running back and forth from the belly of the beast and my workbench, I just used this photo to verify that I had the correct pins & locations.

last flight of the summer! (sort of)

Last flight for a month! KDLZ is shut down as of tomorrow for "25 days" of unneeded runway work on behalf of JEGS, so they can land in wet weather. Well, I can't bitch too much, since it won't do any good. I took advantage of a great summer day to just have more fun. I really like shooting landings in this thing! So far, I haven't had a bad landing yet. That's not skill, that's luck.

Did some landings at DLZ, practiced entering a destination into the nav software and headed up to Marion. There, I had the field to myself and did another "cloverleaf" of Rwys 31, 7, 13 and 25 in order. Winds were 220 @ 8, but not really noticible in the plane. I'm actually looking forward to finding a nice crosswind to work with since I had such good luck a while back. Still having problems with the indicated fuel suddenly dropping to 0, 1 or 2 gals with the attendant verbal warnings.

During the summer shutdown, I'll be tacking that issue as well as a few items on my punch list. Of note, the Dynon 1000T gave me an error message that boiled down to "hard drive failing". Dynon had me send it back for warranty replacement. Good timing! The drive is sent out while the airport is closed. I'm on vacation for a week, but when I get back, I'll work on my punch list and hopefully have the main computer back before flights resume.  

“SYSTEM EVENT 5"

glider practice in the RV

more landings, just for fun. There's a definate improvement in my ability to predict float and make more precise touchdowns. right now, it's easy to not worry too much about undershoots, as Rwy 28 has a 500' displaced threshhold due to constuction, so even if I had touched down short of the line, it would be on runway, not an undershoot. As it turned out, I am still floating a bit or hitting the numbers. I had the prop stop again on rollout #5, so I decided to go with it as a concept and renewed my glider mentality. On pattern #6 I shut off the ignitions and slowed to about 65 kts to stop the prop. Ignitions back to ON in case I needed an in-air restart, and then glided to an uneventful landing. As expected, with the prop stopped there was even more float, but now I have an idea of how this plane really does behave in an engine out condition. 

Improvements

I pulled up the seat pan and tweaked the pilot’s roll push rod by 1 full turn to straighten up the stick.  Later flight test showed that to work very well.  

Looked at the pitch servo while I was under there and confirmed that there was good power to the servo with the appropriate switches on the panel.  Damn.  That was the easy fix I had been looking for. I pulled the servo and took a closer look, not really knowing what to look for.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that I had had a major brain malfunction when I did the wiring for the plug to the servo. Only the ground and power were in the proper position.  I’m amazed that I didn’t kill anything.  I pulled the wires, ordered replacement sockets and installed them a few days later.  On power up, I had the Dynon go through the system discovery routine and this time the pitch servo was recognized!

I turned off the autopilot and will not try it again until I pull the back panel and check out the pitch servo.  Since I wired them both on the same day, I’m pretty sure I messed that one up, too.

There were some problems installing the updated system software.  I couldn’t get the Dynon to recognize the package from Van’s.  Dynon tech support suggested a freshly reformatted memory stick and their distribution instead of Van’s distribution.  Uploaded just fine, so I’m now flying behind system 14.2.1.

My previous observations with bizarre winds aloft and inaccurate synthetic vision have a poorly calibrated magnetic heading as a common input.  I elected to not debug that any further until the system upgrade was done.  Having accomplished the upgrade, I did one more ground compass calibration and then an air confirmation calibration.   The installation manual wants to see a “quality” figure of at least 70, my unit reported Quality 120.  After that, winds aloft and synthetic vision are now much more believable and accurate, respectively. 

On June 30 (date of this post) I did 4 touch & goes at Marion (runways 31, 25, 13, 07. Great fun!) High approach DLZ 28 and overhead break with 360 to landing. Getting better at anticipating float and touching down nearer to desired spot.